My brewery has been slowly moving to the great outdoors over the last few batches. Wort production, aeration and transfer is now all done outside through a sealed system.
Here's the question: has/does anyone transfer finished beer in a garage, let's say from carboy/conical to keg/mini-keg? I thought I even saw a picture once of someone bottling on a bench in his garage. My concern is over microbes hitching a ride in my finished beer. Is this a farily common practice that there's no worry? Or should the transfers be done in sealed systems? Let me know what your experience is.
v/r
Bill
Garage Brewery Question
Moderator: slothrob
How Clean is your Garage
I don't know about you, but my garage is for the car, the lawnmower, leaf blower, etc. I don't know if I would like a Lambic Lawnboy. I guess I'm spoiled, we are doing an addition to the house consisting of a Kitchen, Living room and dining room. The old kitchen will become our laundry room and my brewery. The basement will be my bar. The woodworking shop and garage will remain a woodworking shop and garage.
I guess you could make a bottling booth just like you would make a spray booth for doing auto body work. I saw an illustration where A guy built one by hanging tarps from floor to ceiling and then cleaned all possible dust from that area. You could do the same thing for your beer. This guy went a step further and put the tarps on a roller like a window blind. He left them in place and pulled them down as he needed them. You could almost get rid of most air borne yeast and bacteria that way.
I guess you could make a bottling booth just like you would make a spray booth for doing auto body work. I saw an illustration where A guy built one by hanging tarps from floor to ceiling and then cleaned all possible dust from that area. You could do the same thing for your beer. This guy went a step further and put the tarps on a roller like a window blind. He left them in place and pulled them down as he needed them. You could almost get rid of most air borne yeast and bacteria that way.
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- Double IPA
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The only room that is all mine
Basements are in short supply here in Palmdale, CA, but my wife had enough of beer brewing in her kitchen so the garage it is and has been for years.
I brew, rack and keg/bottle in there and the results are, I am certain, no different than what comes out of the average kitchen.
I take precautions (as I did when brewing indoors too) and keep carboy mouths covered with aluminum foil sprayed with star-san while racking and when in storage.
Truth be told I highly doubt there are LESS microbes in your kitchen than in your garage. If so I have had no personal experience to confirm it.
Cheers!
Ollie
I brew, rack and keg/bottle in there and the results are, I am certain, no different than what comes out of the average kitchen.
I take precautions (as I did when brewing indoors too) and keep carboy mouths covered with aluminum foil sprayed with star-san while racking and when in storage.
Truth be told I highly doubt there are LESS microbes in your kitchen than in your garage. If so I have had no personal experience to confirm it.
Cheers!
Ollie
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- Strong Ale
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Garage Good.
I do all my hot procedures outside and all my cold process procedures from primary through bottling/kegging/sercing in the garage. Fermentation and serving are done in the old beer fridge and racking is done from atop the washing machine down to receiving vessels on the floor. I have not had any contamination problems in the two years I have been using this setup. just make sure you don't confuse that used motor oil for dark extract syrup!
Cheers,
Jim
Cheers,
Jim
Sounds Good
Thanks guys for the replies. I wanted to make sure I wasn't completely insane before I redesign the rest of my process. Now I gotta make a wood collar for the chest freezer, an insulated box for my conical, add a couple of fans to supply/return tubes for cold/warm air and voila! Now if I can only get my hands on a keg setup....
Sounds Good
Thanks guys for the replies. I wanted to make sure I wasn't completely insane before I redesign the rest of my process. Now I gotta make a wood collar for the chest freezer, and insulated box for my conical, add a couple of fans to supply/return tubes for cold air and voila! Now if I can only get my hands on a keg setup....